Need help bringing some oldies back into service! (WE 500DM, WE 2500DM and AE80)

[Fireflite]

Hey guys, I found your forum in pursuit of getting a couple of phones I' have to work again

There's 3 phones I'd like your help with, a Western-Electric 500DM from 1978, a Western-Electric 2500DM and a Automatic-Electric Model 80.  On both the 500DM and the 2500DM I tried running yellow to green and leaving red, on the 500 and the 2500 I got a dial tone but could not dial out (they both only gave duds when dialing, I heard this could be reverse polarity?). The AE-80 is a bit of a mess, originally it came with a 4-line cable, and since then I've tried hooking this phone up to whatever info online i could find (to no avail). There's pictures below, thank you!

on a side note, while browsing the forums waiting for my membership to be active, I saw one member state he came from AE territory. could someone point out what companies serviced which areas? I'd love to know just out of curiosity

on a side side note, I also tried the 500 with the yellow disconnected from the green, same result!

Thank you!

WE 500DM-http://imgur.com/TT1pUhT,pNPDdTo,xHUsOO1,Fy2BM79,yiBfZ2D,pdpwD4W,7PBDKNt:  Black 500DM

AE 80-http://imgur.com/zSdv6hW,nLKUpfU,hhmxtpY,837eEgy,2vsFvNV,hlvEByC#5:  Ivory AE80

WE 2500DM-http://imgur.com/Z0HA5lq,UvF68M5,85tyQVo#2:  Ivory 2500DM

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EDIT:  Externally linked photos added to topic for posterity, hot links to external sites with additional photos added for convenience

[andre_janew]

With the 2500, polarity can be a factor.  Reversed polarity can cause it not to dial out.  Rotary phones, like the 500, are not affected by reversed polarity.  Wiring diagrams are available on this forum for most rotary phones.  They can be a big help.

[G-Man]

One step at a time; what company are you using for telephone service?
Are you getting your service from a cable company (Charter, Comcast, etc.)  or a traditional telephone company such as Verizon or AT&T? Some cable companies do not support pulse/rotary dialing nor some telco FiOs or Uverse services.

Unless the TouchTone pad is bad on your 2500-set is bad, then reversing the red and green line-wires should allow you to dial out.

The line wires are red and green while yellow is for a ground but nowadays is unused; previously it was connected for party-line ringing. You should be able to ignore the black wire.

Unless your sets were previously wired for party-line ringing, they should ring unless the cable modem is unable to supply adequate ringing voltage. Either rewire the set for bridged ringing or pair the yellow wire with either the green or red wires of the line cord.

Wiring diagrams are available from the TCI Library for all of these sets so let us know if you need any.

[G-Man]

Here is a diagram showing the ringer connections for your 500DM set.

[poplar1]

If you remove the short yellow wire completely -- the one with one end on G -- in the 500 and 2500, these phones will apparently then be wired correctly:
Red line wire to L2, along with red ringer wire, and yellow and slate wires from the hookswitch.
Green line wire to L1, along with black ringer wire, and green wire from the hookswitch.

As others have suggested, on the Touch-Tone phone (2500), try reversing the red and green incoming wires by moving red line wire to L1 and green line wire to L2.

[jsowers]

on a side note, while browsing the forums waiting for my membership to be active, I saw one member state he came from AE territory. could someone point out what companies serviced which areas? I'd love to know just out of curiosity

That could have been my statement, about being from AE territory. Unfortunately there is no map of all the telcos in the USA that I've ever heard of. Not even by state. That's because there were thousands upon thousands of small areas served by independent telcos. Some of them were bought up by the Bell System and some by other companies. Some still operate independently and do a very good job at it. My county is still served by four Telcos. It was five until Windstream bought out the main telco in the county, already owning a smaller one out in the southern tip of the county that was formerly Alltel. My telco didn't use AE phones exclusively. I have a couple SC phones they installed in my collection. There were areas served by GTE that probably did use AE phones exclusively. So AE territory can mean many things. It's also in Canada and we have some very knowledgeable AE collectors from Canada on this Forum.

You can see about how many phone companies there are in the US from this huge chart of regional phone companies on Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_telephone_companies

There's also this site where you can input any area code and exchange and find out what telco serves it and what type of switch, etc.

https://www.telcodata.us/search-area-code-exchange-detail

And welcome to the Forum! Your three new-to-you phones may turn into many more!

[G-Man]

The ringing issue with your AECo 80 may be different. Have you checked to see if it has a frequency instead of a straight-line or 20~ ringer? If so, then it will not respond to standard ringing current. Frequency ringers were used for party-line service.

In fact, if your other sets were also used in independent telephone company territory, then they may also have frequency ringers. If, after following popular1's advice, and you are still unable to get them to ring, a photo of the insides showing the ringers would help verify whether they are or not.

[poplar1]

Picture #2 in the external link for the AE 80 shows a 30~ ringer:

[Fireflite]

Wow, thank you all for your replies and the welcome! I'll follow your directions and see if I can get the 500 and 2500 up and running, thank you! I'm using AT&T phone service.

as for the AE80, it's not an issue of not ringing, it's an issue of I messed with some wires and have no idea how to make it work again  The best I could ever do with it is make it so I could pick up the phone and talk to someone on the line, but the phone would not ring and not dial out. Thanks!

[Fireflite]

Oh, and thank you to whoever edited my original post!

[jsowers]

I forgot to ask about your handle. Are you into 1950s De Sotos? They were beautiful cars. I'm particularly fond of the 1956 De Soto, like the one Jimmy Stewart drives in Vertigo, if you've ever seen the movie. You can post a car picture as your avatar if you like.

[Fireflite]

I forgot to ask about your handle. Are you into 1950s De Sotos? They were beautiful cars. I'm particularly fond of the 1956 De Soto, like the one Jimmy Stewart drives in Vertigo, if you've ever seen the movie. You can post a car picture as your avatar if you like.

Haha thanks for noticing! I'm a fan of Forward-Look era Chrysler products, they were and ARE STILL beautiful cars!

Got an update on the phones, The 2500 has been reversed and I eliminated yellow from the system, I can dial out and hear calls fine, but now I can't talk to who I'm calling, and incoming calls ring, but very lowly (I tried adjusting the Loudness wheel at the bottom, pretty sure i turned it the right way but I'll double check later!
Could re-wiring yellow to green be the problem? I just noticed I didn't try that lol!
I sound stupid, don't I? oh well first time for everything!

the 500 is still dead in the water, I tried it with red and green reversed, with yellow connected to red, with yellow connected to green, etc etc and i couldn't dial out.

Thanks again!

[G-Man]

Following popularone's instructions while using the wiring diagram that was provided in the earlier posts should take care of your problems.

[Fireflite]

I'll take another shot at it tonight, thanks!

[G-Man]

I'll take another shot at it tonight, thanks!

Here is a diagram showing ringer, handset, and line-cord connections.

Presumably the other wires are connected properly. If you continue to have problems please post photos of the inside showing the type of network and connections.